Nosh Eatery

Bent over a bin of freshly chopped lettuce, Rick Carson prepares for tomorrow’s catering event. His partner, Lindsay Neidhart, will groom the servers and the dishes at the private gathering, ensuring their feast flows to guests without a ripple.

It’s late Saturday afternoon, closing time at Nosh Eatery in Hudson. Here, the couple segues into part two of their three-part mini empire, Nosh Eatery & Creative Catering and their organic garden, where they grow the vegetables and herbs they use in their dishes.

“We have the same passions and goals,” says Carson, referring to the business and personal relationships shared by the duo. “You can’t go wrong with that.”

Restaurateur Neidhart and chef Carson say their mutual affection for fresh foods prepared to perfection stems from their childhoods. Growing up, Neidhart says she always helped in the kitchen. She baked pies with her grandmother, cooked meals for the family and did much of the family shopping.

“My parents would give me a blank check to do the grocery shopping. I loved it,” Neidhart says, adding that she continues the shopping ritual, circling to three markets a week to check off every item on her list.

Carson says he dreamed of becoming a chef since he was 14 and even planned to study under master chef Thomas Keller.

“It’s something I’ve always wanted,” says Carson, who began his culinary training as a teenager, through a high school vocational program. He quickly launched his career as a chef at fine-dining establishments in and around Ohio.

Influenced by his upbringing, Carson says his mother would pick vegetables from the family garden to prepare dishes that paid homage to her Filipino heritage. Eclectic ingredients like tamarind, okra and bitter melon accompanied pork and rice for daily family dinners. Equally delightful: breakfasts at the Carson home, which never came out of a Lucky Charms box. Instead, Carson’s father would whip up mouthwatering pork schnitzel for morning meals. The schnitzel is still Carson’s favorite dish and the memory of his father preparing it, his fondest.

Neidhart and Carson bring their family traditions to their eatery and catering businesses, where they make everything from scratch and dishes incorporate seasonal foods infused with global spices. Traditions shift into the couple’s home life, where food and family blend as smoothly as their trademark aioli.

“Family is super important to both of us,” says Neidhart, noting that her father joins the couple for dinners at their home two or three days a week.

“We have a lot of the same values,” adds Carson, pointing out that the couple says grace before every meal.

Carson’s 12-year-old son, Issac, completes the family fold. When he’s not on stage acting in lead roles for school plays, Issac can be found in the kitchen shucking corn or out with his father picking peppers and other vegetables from their organic farm.

Their harvest finds its home in meals prepared and shared by the family. As Carson and his son sauté freshly peeled asparagus in olive oil and lemon zest, Neidhart prepares wild rice with sun dried tomatoes and fresh basil. These accompaniments are paired with a plate of pork cutlets, which Carson and his son marinate with garlic, tamari, red wine vinegar, fresh-picked rosemary, olive oil and espelette pepper.

“It’s great for all of us to prepare dinner, then enjoy the fruits of our labor. I believe that it brings us closer together as a family,” Carson says, adding that good food and conversation replace cell phones and television during their family meals.

Like Carson and herself, Neidhart describes Issac as “a real foodie.”

“I’d like him to become a doctor,” intercepts Carson, who has big plans for his son and for his future with Neidhart.

Up the road, the couple hopes to build a restaurant on tranquil farmland where they would raise the foods they cook and serve. In the meantime, the couple keeps a steady simmer.

“It takes a strong couple to be in business together,” Carson says, “And we’ve got momentum.”

Forking it Over

Nosh’s artsy trademark — an abstract fork — adorns the eatery’s storefront window, staff T-shirts and catering vans and, most recently, takes the form of a metal sculpture that graces the restaurant. The symbol with a novel twist fueled our inspiration to fork out a few extra morsels about creative culinary couple Lindsay Neidhart and Rick Carson.

First jobs:

He was a VFW hall dishwasher and after-hours pool shooter.

She was an A&W carhop.

Before they were a couple:

They were platonic roommates for more than a year. “He became my best friend,” she says. “We did everything backward.”

You can find Lindsay and Rick at Nosh Eatery, 5929 Darrow Road in Hudson, or at the 10th anniversary Taste of Hudson event over Labor Day weekend, Aug. 31 to Sept. 1. For details, visit www.tasteofhudson.com.